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China's April auto sales up 13% from year ago

BEIJING — China's auto sales rose 13% in April despite concern about a weak economic recovery and Japanese brands suffered less severe declines, an industry group reported Thursday. Customers in the world's

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China's April auto sales up 13% from year ago

Associated Press
5:35 p.m. EDT May 9, 2013

A model with a Great Wall H7 SUV last month at the Shanghai auto show. SUV have risen to 18% of the Chinese market. Great Wall has become the Chinese industry's breakout success on its SUV sales, up 95% in the first quarter.(Photo: Eugene Hoshiko AP)

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Gains came despite fall in China economic growth to 7.7% in first quarter from 7.9% in previous quarter

BEIJING — China's auto sales rose 13% in April despite concern about a weak economic recovery and Japanese brands suffered less severe declines, an industry group reported Thursday.

Customers in the world's biggest auto market bought 1.4 million cars, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. It said total auto sales showed "clear improvement" at 1.8 million vehicles but gave no details.

Global automakers are looking to China to drive revenues but competition is increasing after sales growth that spiked to 45% in 2009 declined to more sustainable rates.

"The data are a bit better than I expected but within a normal range. Demand in China is huge, so there is no problem with consuming capacity," said Jia Xinguang, an auto analyst in Beijing.

The sales gains came despite a decline in Chinese economic growth to 7.7% in the first three months of the year from 7.9% the previous quarter. Analysts say the recovery from the country's deepest slowdown since the 2008 global crisis is being shored up by state-led investment and bank lending.

Japanese automakers that have been hurt by tensions over a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo suffered a 4.9% decline in overall sales from a year earlier. Still, that was an improvement over the previous month's 17.8% decline.

General Motors reported earlier that April sales of GM-brand autos by the company and its Chinese partners rose 15.3% from a year earlier to 261,870 vehicles.

GM said this week its main Chinese joint venture, Shanghai GM, received government permission to build an 8 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) factory to build Cadillacs. The company has said it will make a priority of increasing Cadillac's share of China's fast-growing luxury car market.

Japan's Nissan Motor said its April sales rose 2.7% to 102,800 vehicles, breaking a series of monthly declines. However, Nissan said sales for the first four months of the year were down 11% from the same period last year.

Ford Motor said sales of Ford-brand vehicles by the company and its Chinese partners rose 37% over a year earlier to 75,331 vehicles. It said year-to-date sales were up 49% at 261,927 vehicles.